Upcoming Events

The Chapter was founded in November of 2005 by an Executive Board comprised of industry experts and law enforcement professionals in the AML and counter-terrorist-financing fields. The Chapter seeks to promote the overall mission of ACAMS that is, “to advance the professional knowledge, skills and experience of those dedicated to the prevention, detection and reporting of international money laundering” The Chapter also seeks to promote ACAMS as a platform for career development and professional networking for its members, by organizing meetings and events of local interest, where we will present speakers from the private sector, the supervisory and regulatory agencies and from law enforcement. We hope the Chapter will be an effective and productive resource for financial institutions and related businesses, and we welcome your participation.

Upcoming New York Chapter learning events will be announced soon.

Rooftop Chapter Social

July 19, 2017

The ACAMS NY Chapter cordially invites you to the Rooftop Social hosted by GQR Global Markets, The Financial Crime Staffing Experts.

Open Bar and passed Hor D’ouvres

The ACAMS New York Chapter 2017 Annual Gala

June 28, 2017

Meryl Lutsky and Peter Wild, along with the Executive Board of the ACAMS New York Chapter, invite our chapter members to join us and celebrate our continuous efforts to provide the membership with excellent education, regulatory updates and critical solutions to AML compliance challenges.

Networking

June 14, 2017

The New York Chapter of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and MJ Boyd Consulting are excited to to announce an exclusive networking event for Junior AML Professionals. This event will be geared towards professionals with five or less years of experience in the industry.

Executive members of the New York Board will be present to share their professional experience/career path and entertain questions. The benefits of ACAMS membership and the CAMS designation will also be highlighted. We encourage you to come with questions and learn about your options within this growing industry segment.

We only have limited space available to this event, so register now and join us. Attendees will also have the opportunity to enter a raffle where several different prizes can be won. There will be ample opportunity to network with others in the AML industry so please remember to bring your business cards!

The Challenges of Terrorist Financing Typology Design

June 1, 2017

This session will discuss the challenges associated with designing and maintaining transaction monitoring typologies to identify potential financing of terrorism.

Examples of the financial transactions associated with some previous terrorist attacks will be discussed. The session will explore some alternatives that a financial institution can use to identify transactions that are potentially indicative of terrorist financing.

Speakers:

Data Science and AI applied to AML

May 16, 2017

Data Science, Deep Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. How real is the promise for KYC and AML?

A number of Data Science, Deep Learning, and AI techniques promise to revolutionize identification of bad actors and transactions in financial services for a fraction of the cost of existing techniques. How real is this promise and how does industry view these advances?

A networking reception with light refreshments will follow the learning event.

Hosted by: Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP

* Note: Due to security requirements of our host, online registration for this event is mandatory and no walk-ins can be accommodated. All participants are required to present valid ID to building security. Doors open at 5:30 PM and will close at 6:00 PM. Please do not arrive prior to 5:30 PM, and attendees arriving after 6:15 PM may not be able to gain entry.

Data Management Front to Back in Financial Crimes

March 30, 2017

Panelists will discuss enterprise data quality management programs and how these programs are leveraged to implement controls over transaction monitoring and filtering programs.The panel discussion will be followed by a networking reception hosted by Ernst & Young, including appetizers and refreshments.

ACAMS New York Chapter Holiday Party

Sanctions and AML Screening: Essentials and Best Practices

October 24, 2016

Financial Crime Risk Assessments: What to Start, Continue and Stop!

September 13, 2016

ACAMS NY Chapter Continuing Education Event

On September 13, ACAMS New York Chapter was proud to present: Financial Crime Risk Assessments: What to Start, Continue and Stop. The evening was graciously hosted by Deloitte at their Rockefeller Center offices and was attended by one of our largest turnouts of approximately 175 people.

Risk Assessments (RAs) being the critical exercise with which institutions start their AML, Sanctions and ABC risk management activities have received focus and attention from boards, senior and business manager and regulators. A panel of experts offered their advice and opinions on what financial institutions should start doing, continue doing and stop doing. Our panelists included:

The session was moderated by Jack Sonnenschein, Global Head FCC Audit Advisory at Standard Chartered Bank.

Highlights and Takeaways on Best Practices:

Risk Assessments should:

Find the right balance between QuantitativeData and QualitativeAnalysis.

Continue to be data driven to give the results a level of required objectivity.

Leverage qualitative aspects including understanding corporate strategic efforts such as business expansion or de-risking of clients, products, geographies.

Be an iterative process that is continually re-evaluated and updated as necessary.

Allow for a level of judgmental input with overrides clearly explained and documented.

Tie to the institution’s regulatory framework but with a focus on key but not all regulatory requirements.

Assess and analyze results for trends internally and against industry benchmarks where possible.

Considered horizontal topics and products should be mapped to the business lines.

Explain gaps in data and ensure these are communicated to the first line of defense.

Importance of Communication across and Convergence with the three lines of defense

The risk assessment methodology and results need to be socialized.

There needs to a level of accountability and credible challenge for both the risk assessment methodologies as well as the results.

Colleagues within each line of defense should have a clear understanding of their role and responsibility in the RA process.

Risk assessment results should be assessed against a company’s risk appetite statement or defined risk tolerance.

Developing a common taxonomy across all lines of defense so that metrics/KPIs and testing results can more easily inform the Risk Assessment.

Best Practices

There should be a focus on directional and informative metrics where we monitor against established thresholds.

As the risk assessment program matures it should strive to get to a point where risk assessment results can periodically and selectively be refreshed.

Internal audits, compliance monitoring reports, and other quality assurance reports developed by the businesses should be reviewed and considered as part of the RA process and feedback loop.

What FIs should stop doing

Stop discounting the importance of adequate time, and budgets and incorporate people, technology and other resources as needed.

Producing risk assessment reports that include volumes of paper…look to ways to better present the results and analytics.

Thanks again to our panelists for sharing their insights and expertise, our gracious host for the facility and refreshments, and the untiring efforts of the Chapter Board Members that worked to make the evening the success it was.

Rooftop Social

The Bangladesh Bank Cyberheist

2nd Annual Gala

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016, the ACAMS New York Chapter – ACAMS’ first and longest running chapter – celebrated its 11th anniversary with a Gala dinner at the the Union League Club in New York City.

The extravaganza was a celebration of the Chapter’s continuing achievements in providing its members and others in the NYC Metropolitan area AML community with excellent education, regulatory updates, networking opportunities and critical solutions to AML compliance challenges.

Chip Poncy and Rohan Kohli held an engaging fireside chat to discuss “The Future of AML” and the event included a networking event in the Union League Club library as well as a formal dinner.

The Chapter Executive Board extends a special thanks to the event sponsors, listed below in alphabetical order:

Gala photos

Emerging KYC Challenges

Model Risk Management

ACAMS New York Chapter Holiday Party

December 15, 2015

ACAMS NY Chapter November Learning Event: The New Age of Transaction Monitoring

November 2, 2015

10th Anniversary of the ACAMS New York Chapter

June 30th, 2015

The ACAMS New York Chapter celebrated 10 years of continuous efforts to bring excellent education, regulatory updates and critical solutions to AML compliance challenges. The Anniversary Gala focused on the history and achievements of ACAMS in general and the New York Chapter in particular and their dedication to the AML community.

Breaking the Bank: Cybersecurity and the Financial Services Industry

May 12, 2015

From Russia to Cuba – A Complex Tale of Old Friends & Sanctions

Meryl has been the Chief of both the Money Laundering Unit of the New York State Attorney General’s Office and the New York State Crime Proceeds Strike Force since 2004. These units investigate and prosecute money laundering and its associated criminal conduct, as well as violations of the Banking and Tax laws. To investigate these complex crimes more effectively and creatively, Meryl has assembled a task force consisting of federal and state prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and regulators. Meryl has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes throughout New York State. And because these investigations often extend to other states and countries, Meryl has developed key partnerships with many other jurisdictions, working with them to investigate and prosecute these mobile and multifaceted criminal enterprises. Among other cases, Meryl has recently investigated several multi-state fraud rings whose crimes included identity theft, money laundering, credit card fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud. More than forty individuals, including lawyers, mortgage brokers, money transmitters, and bank branch managers and other officials, have been indicted. Losses from these criminal enterprises currently total more than $50 million.

Peter Wild, FCA, CAMS Audit
Co-Chair
Wild AML Solutions

Peter is an independent consultant in the Anti Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing {AML/TF} and Sanctions field. In consulting engagements he specializes in AML/TF and Sanctions business processes, Independent Testing and Operational and IT Auditing. He is also experienced in the development and presentation of AML Training.

He retired from J.P.Morgan in 2016 as a Senior Manager in the Internal Audit Department. He managed both Information Technology and Operational audits in many areas of the Firm. Starting in 2007, he specialized in managing audits covering all the Corporate AML/TF and Sanctions computer systems and operations.

Upon moving to America from England he became the IT Audit Director for Republic National Bank of New York. Later, he was a Senior IT Audit Manager at Coopers & Lybrand and then moved to the Melville Corporation as the IT Audit Director and subsequently became their Director of Information Systems Planning.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales {FCA} and a Past President of the New York Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association {ISACA}. He is a Recipient of the Joseph J. Wasserman Award for his outstanding contributions to Information Systems Audit and Security.

He is a founding member of the CAMS Audit Faculty {CAMS Audit}, the Co-Chair of the ACAMS New York Chapter and in 2015 he received the Al Gillum Volunteer of the Year Award. He is also a member of the Honourable Artillery Company of London.

Vasilios Chrisos, CAMS
Co-Sponsorship
PwC

Vasilios is a Principal in the Financial Crimes Unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”). He brings to his engagements over 25 years of experience assisting both financial institutions and non-financial companies on all aspects of financial crime compliance with a particular focus on anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions matters.

Vasilios also brings value to his clients by guiding them on communication strategies with the applicable regulatory authorities, including regular updates and submissions on the progress of remediation efforts.

Clients appreciate Vasilios for his accessibility, commitment, and leadership. Seen as thoughtful, engaging, and highly personable, he is adept at establishing productive working relationships and bringing out the best in others. With his strong commitment to service and to doing what’s right, clients value him as a trusted advisor. In that role, he is sensitive to their concerns, and able to guide them in managing the risks often associated with their businesses.

Prior to joining the firm, Vasilios was the Americas Financial Crime Director for Macquarie, Australia’s largest investment bank. In that role, he was responsible for managing the company’s AML, sanctions, and anti-bribery and corruption (AB&C) compliance programs across all business divisions and legal entities in North and South America.

Vasilios is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). He is currently on the Global Advisory Board of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). In 2012, Vasilios received the prestigious ACAMS "Al Gillum Volunteer of the Year Award" for his significant contributions to the AML, sanctions, and financial crime fields.

Vasilios has authored AML thought leadership which has been published in various trade periodicals and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars.

Drew Bach
Co-Secretary
First National Bank of Long Island

As an Assistant Vice President and BSA Manager for The First National Bank of Long Island. Drew plans, organizes, and controls the Banks day-to-day administrative and operational BSA compliance activities. He participates in various audits, reviews, and examinations, and collaborates with the Bank Secrecy Act/OFAC Officer, Privacy Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer. Other responsibilities include oversight of the AML Program as well as training different business areas to foster understanding of regulatory compliance requirements. He conducts internal/external BSA and Fraud related investigations and reports to Management on appropriate corrective actions needed. Drew has been an active and certified member of ACAMS since 2010, Drew is a member of the executive board for the New York Chapter of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

David B. Chenkin, CAMS
Co-Membership
Zeichner Ellman & Krause LLP

David B. Chenkin is the managing partner of law firm Zeichner Ellman & Krause LLP (ZEK) and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist. As a litigator, Chenkin represents major financial institutions and individuals in civil, criminal, regulatory and compliance-related matters. He heads the firm’s anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance practice area, and handles complex government investigations initiated by Congress and by federal, state and local prosecutors and regulators. Chenkin has devoted substantial attention to representing clients in many of the major financial investigations conducted by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and also provides AML training to law enforcement agencies and the private sector.

Tina M. Rampino
Co-Sponsorship Director
Commerzbank AG

Tina M. Rampino joined Commerzbank AG, New York Branch in September 2014 as the Head of Compliance Training and Policy Coordination. In this role, Tina is responsible for managing all aspects of the U.S. Compliance Training Program, with particular emphasis on AML and Sanctions. Tina is also responsible for the U.S. Compliance Policy & Procedure Framework. Tina has experience working in Head Office in Frankfurt, Germany to provide advisory on U.S. regulatory standards for both the Global Training Program and Global Policy Framework. Tina is also responsible for bank-wide compliance communications, including implementing “Culture of Compliance” campaigns, and initiating outreach with law enforcement and financial industry peers to establish best practices.

Prior to joining Commerzbank AG, Tina was the Director of Compliance Communications and Outreach at HSBC Bank where she developed and implemented the Compliance Outreach Program in order to enhance HSBC’s ability to address regulatory expectations and to better engage employees, law enforcement and industry partners. Prior to joining HSBC, Tina held positions in Anti-Money Laundering Compliance at Bear Stearns, Capital One Bank and Standard Chartered Bank and the Department of Homeland Security’s High Intensity Financial Crimes Task Force. Tina is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and an active member of ACAMS.

Gary Ferrari
Co-Communications
IPSA International

Gary Ferrari is the Managing Director of the AML Consulting Practice of IPSA International in New York, responsible for sourcing and leading AML Advisory, Technology, and Investigative client engagements. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for the NY Chapter of ACAMS, and was among the first group of AML practitioners to achieve the ACAMS certification, in the initial year it was offered.

Mr. Ferrari has 25 years of regulatory compliance experience. He is a former Vice President of Global Compliance for American Express Company, where he originated the regulatory compliance program and played an integral role in its global implementation throughout many of its lines of business. He is credited with performing the first AML risk assessment and initiating the AML compliance program for American Express Travel Related Services.

He co-led two substantial and successful AML remediation efforts to address enforcement actions at American Express Bank’s Latin American private bank and its global correspondent banking business in 2007-08. Most recently before IPSA, Mr. Ferrari served as the Core Compliance Leader at GE Capital-Americas, serving to build a compliance framework for a leading corporate finance business as part of a SIFI-designated bank holding company under Federal Reserve supervision.

Howard Spieler
Co-Secretary
AIG

Howard serves as a Sanctions Compliance Officer within Corporate Compliance’s Financial Crimes Group (FCG) at American International Group (AIG). In this capacity he acts as a liaison within the company for both the commercial and consumer businesses on various global economic sanctions matters.

His responsibilities include the ongoing assessment, development, implementation and maintenance of AIG’s economic sanctions compliance programs, as well as assisting on remediation efforts, training, and providing support and expertise to the business. Previously, in his role as an Advisory Compliance Officer for AIG’s Property and Casualty division, he was responsible for implementing policies and advising the businesses and functional areas on compliance procedures, risk assessments, and controls. He was primarily focused on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Economic Sanctions (OFAC), but also advised on Information Handling (Privacy), Anti-Corruption (FCPA), Conflicts of Interest, Gifts and Entertainment and other relevant compliance policies, regulations and procedures.

Prior to his employment at AIG he was the Senior Vice President and Head of Compliance at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). At NYCEDC he was tasked with monitoring and assessing a $30 billion portfolio of real estate transactions. Responsibilities included maintaining the company’s compliance program, including developing controls and procedures, as well submitting statutory reports to regulators as required by law. Utilizing Compliance reviews, he implemented the firm’s risk-based self-assessment monitoring and testing program. Investigations for non-compliance led to the recovery of over $100 million for NYCEDC and the City of New York.

Irina Samoylova is a Regional Head of Financial Markets and Corporate Finance Financial Crime Advisory with Standard Chartered Bank, NY Branch. Irina provides thought leadership and advice regarding the identification and mitigation of financial crime risks and controls affecting the business in the Americas focused on Financial Markets, Corporate Finance, Lending and Trade Finance product sets, as well as Corporate and Investment Banking segments. She reviews new and existing products and initiatives affecting Americas regions and recommends solutions to address any BSA/AML related risks. In current role Irina also represents regional FCC for local roll outs of the AML Target Operating Model, including Americas transaction monitoring capabilities, and she provides all necessary support from an FCC perspective to ensure a successful and timely implementation. She also assists managing the internal audits and external regulatory exams, including regular updates and submissions on the progress of remediation efforts.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Irina was the AML Advisory Compliance Manager with JPMorgan & Chase managing the AML compliance program for the CIB businesses globally. In that role, she advised Treasury Services businesses on BSA/AML compliance issues and requirements for high risk product sets, including Core Cash, Cash Vault Services, Escrow Prepaid Card and Trade, and specialized client segments. Prior to joining JPMorgan & Chase, Irina was with Goldman Sachs & Co in various Risk & Control roles and spent last 3 years completing various international projects as part of the Global Policy and Quality Assurance team.

Jack was most recently the Global Head, Audit Advisory for Financial Crime Compliance at Standard Chartered Bank. Previously, as Chief Auditor for Compliance at Citigroup, he had global responsibility for anti-moneylaundering, anti-bribery and corruption, sanctions and consumer and institutional compliance audits.

In a prior role at Citigroup, Jack drove the development of technology solutions for customer acquisition and identification programs, transaction monitoring, suspicious activity reporting and USA Patriot Act compliance. He has worked extensively in developing country, product and customer risk assessments and models to integrate and support customer due diligence and monitoring systems.

At American Express, Jack developed and implemented enterprise-wide compliance risk management programs building legal, regulatory and control inventories and risk assessments, compliance monitoring and testing, third party compliance oversight and compliance training.

As Client Service Partner in Chase’s General Auditing Department, he was responsible for delivering financial and technology audit services to Global Private Banking, Consumer Banking, Credit Card and Mortgage Banking clients.

Jack is certified as CAMS-Audit and is a member of the NYC ACAMS Chapter Board. He was a contributor and inaugural instructor for CAMS-Audit and continues to teach and serve on the CAMS-Audit Review Board. He started his career at Deloitte & Touche in Quebec and New York where he earned his chartered accountancy and certified public accountant designations.

John J. MacKessy
Co-Communications
Citi Cards

John MacKessy has over 20 years of regulatory and compliance experience and is currently a Director and Global Head of AML Monitoring for Citi Cards, the largest issuer of credit cards across the world. Prior to joining Citi, John was the Global AML & Sanctions Compliance Officer for MasterCard. Prior to MasterCard, John was a regulatory consultant assisting firms with complying with regulatory enforcement actions and non-prosecution agreements. He has led the investigation of numerous complex financial crimes and was the AML compliance expert for the Bank of New York Mellon NPA agreements. John holds a B.A. from the University at Albany and an M.B.A. from Baruch College. He is a Certified Ant-Money Laundering Specialist, Certified Fraud Examiner and is a board member of the ACAMS New York Chapter.

Kristin Milchanowski
Co-Programing
Digital Economy Analytics

Dr. Milchanowski is the Chief Data Scientist for Digital Economy Analytics, a quantitative analytics solutions firm. She is responsible for the innovation and execution of tuning/optimization and big data analytics for Cyber Security, Digital Disruption, Anti-Money Laundering, OFAC and Sanctions, KYC, EDD, Anti-Corruption, and Trade Surveillance. Additionally, Milchanowski is on the Board of Directors for the NY ACAMS Chapter, and is a board member of Blackguard Inc., a biometric facial recognition software company. Dr. Milchanowski was previously the Chief Data Scientist of the Legal & Compliance Division of Morgan Stanley and Head of Model Risk Management at JP Morgan. Milchanowski has international leadership experience in more than 20 countries and has conducted analysis on the finances of illicit networks, in conjunction with governments and financial institutions, in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. She has end-to-end model risk management domain expertise, including effective model development, implementation, use, and validation.